One Man’s View: Silva’s Last Mountain

A
super fight between Anderson Silva (file photo) and Jon Jones would
do big business for the UFC.

I have seen the future and it is this: Anderson
Silva against Jon Jones in
the most significant super fight of 2012, or at least by mid-2013,
assuming the end of Mayan calendar is merely that. Given their
mutual trajectories, the bout will soon make sense on every
level.

In February -- after Jones summarily thrashed Ryan Bader
and learned moments later he would receive a title shot against
Mauricio
“Shogun” Rua -- I opined that Jones-Silva could be the
can’t-miss fight of 2012. Some called it a bold pick, considering
Jones had not even fought Rua yet, but after “Bones” beat the
Brazilian in three at UFC
128, I have become convinced that nobody in the light
heavyweight division beats the champion in the near future, outside
of a Matt
Serra Momentâ„¢.

Predicting fights is an often-murky business, and projecting
mega-matches that will happen on the assumption that two men will
plow through multiple mutual opponents to get there is akin to
guessing the status of the Dow Jones a year from now. However,
given that Silva and Jones are the most physically dominating
performers in the game, they seem like two trains headed for one
another. Here is why it is more likely to happen than you think,
and why it all makes sense for both men.

At 36, Silva has virtually cleaned out the middleweight division.
Outside of a megabucks rematch with Chael
Sonnen, there is a paltry list of challengers that even the
most optimistic UFC acolytes would barely want to see. And after
Silva’s destruction of Yushin Okami
at UFC
134 on Saturday, I am firmly of the belief that Silva’s rib
injury affected him in the Sonnen bout a year ago. Moving
gracefully and picking spots at will to strike, he reminded us of
how dazzling he can be when he decides to implement his will and
handle the business at hand with extreme prejudice.

You are not supposed to drop people with jabs, but Silva did so
against Okami. It is not considered wise to lower your hands and
stare at a world-class opponent, daring him to uncork something
while standing brazenly in striking range, but when Silva did it,
it had all the suspense of a schoolyard bully knowing his victim
was too cowed to fight back.

This is what translates into Performance Theater for Silva, and,
when followed with a red meat-style knockout, it goes down as yet
another chapter in the book of an artist so far above his
contemporaries and further exhibits why -- at least at
middleweight, where his matches seem entirely devoid of suspense --
they are beneath his station.

Silva has made wholesale domination the de facto expectation for
his bouts, as he has gone 14-0 in the
UFC and shattered all existing UFC standards for consecutive
wins (14), title defenses (nine) and highlight-reel moments few, if
any, could hope to imitate. If he beats Sonnen in a rematch
resembling the domination he showed at UFC 134, a move to 205
pounds makes even more sense, especially at his age and considering
his need for viable challenges.

Jon Jones
File Photo

Jones is at the top at 205.

Silva will also be at a point where, personally and professionally,
it may be worth the risk to take on a monster like Jones, whose
star will have risen considerably with a series of impressive
defenses. If Jones is not the boss at 205 pounds by then, whoever
has unseated him will, by default, be considered a bad-assed light
heavyweight. Plug in “The Spider” against that guy. For now, we
have to assume it will be Jones, unless someone jacks his
swagger.

Jones is not anywhere close to Silva from a credentials standpoint,
but, at 24, he is in a position of enviable upside -- a sitting
champion who is plausibly three to four years from his absolute
physical prime. The light heavyweight champion has steamrolled his
way to the title in a mere eight UFC bouts, displaying a shocking
command of every phase of the game, except for the bottom position
on the ground, if only because no one has come remotely close to
sticking and keeping him there.

Jones does a lot of things in a lot of ways nobody has really had
to deal with simultaneously, and, with each outing, he keeps
demonstrating new riffs that only he seems to hear, consistently
nailing them and adding them to the pantheon of the possible.
Whether it is a devastating spinning back elbow from the clinch or
inventive strikes on the ground that exact maximum damage with
minimum warning, Jones is a daunting prospect for any aspirant to
the 205-pound throne. His decimation of Rua was so clinical and
calm that he carried himself like the champion dusting off an
overmatched challenger.

His first defense is slated for next month against Quinton
“Rampage” Jackson in the UFC
135 headliner, and I believe that “Rampage” has probably the
best shot of any existing light heavyweights to best Jones. That is
a misleading statement, however, because Jackson is a longshot at
best. He has heavy hands but has largely abandoned his wrestling
since migrating to the UFC, and his trouble with leg kicks
represents a huge red flag and figures to be a tactic Jones is sure
to exploit.

Rashad
Evans is talented but too small; Lyoto
Machida will never get past Jones’ range and reach given the
trouble Jackson gave him essentially throwing hands and nothing
else; Phil Davis
may have the grappling chops but is still relatively green in the
standup. Mentally, it is hard to see Rua being any more competitive
in a rematch when he was destroyed by Jones. That bout would
essentially resemble Georges
St. Pierre-Matt Hughes 3,
where the outcome became clear about a minute into it.

Essentially, by the middle of next year, Silva and Jones will each
have probably mowed down a couple challengers in impressive
fashion. One can only hope Silva’s fussy streak does not mar
another performance, especially against a hapless opponent he could
otherwise finish. Silva and Jones pose terrifically difficult
problems for foes and seem wired to have the tools to beat one
another.

Silva’s style also translates well to 205, given that, unlike
Georges St. Pierre, it is not predicated on overpowering people but
rather accuracy and timing on the feet. He has already vetted at
light heavyweight, and a showdown with Jones would probably project
to an insanely lucrative pay-per-view buy rate. The highlight reel
promo alone would be enough to induce a blind man to make the
purchase.

Yes, there is one last mountain to climb for Silva: Jones and the
205-pound division. It would be a fitting end to a career that has
only fallen short of expectations, at times, precisely because of
his ability to set them so high.